SupportAssist Hardware scan failure

After 23 minutes, mine also fails with hardware scan. This occurred after I updated to the current version (says file version 4.3.0.52594)

Hi @Sinnbeck :

What is your Windows operating system, and what version of Dell SupportAssist is currently shown in your list of installed software at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features?

If you check your Windows services (Start | Windows Administrative Tools | Services) do all six Dell services shown in the support article SupportAssist for PCs and Tablets Clean Uninstall and Reinstall have a status of "Running"?  This includes the Dell TechHub service (required for hardware diagnostic scans) and Dell Client Management Service (required for variety of Dell utilities like SupportAssist and Dell Update for Windows Universal).

I no longer use SupportAssist on my Inspiron 5584 but I noticed that a few users have reported issues with their Dell TechHub service since they were upgraded to the latest SupportAssist v4.0.x (released 01-Feb-2024).  See ThomasAAT's 03-Feb-2024 Buggy support assist, new version 4.0 and L52's 07-Feb-2024 Dell Tech Hub stops shutdown for two examples.

Release notes and a user guide for the new SupportAssist v4.0 are available at https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/dell-supportassist-pcs-tablets/docs.

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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3930 * Firefox v122.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23110.3-1.1.23110.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.8.311-1.0.2259 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Dell Update for Windows Universal v5.1.0 * My Dell v2.2.6.0

Ive got the same issue since their update. Was working fine before. Chatting to the help centre is useless as it takes them literally a year to respond and even when they do, its repeating same steps that you have tried and do not work. regretting getting a Dell and would not recommend anyone to buy one.

I am running win 11 with the newest version of SA. 4.0.0.51819

Tried both fixing corrupt files, outdated files, glitches. 

None of witch seem to have fixed the problem so far. 

@lmacri​ With win11 and newest version of SA. I made sure all 6 services had running status, witch they had. so still haven't figured it out. 

With win11 and newest version of SA. I made sure all 6 services had running status, witch they had. so still haven't figured it out. 

Hi @Sinnbeck :

If you haven't already done so, disable Fast Startup as instructed in Option # 2 of Brink’s ElevenForums tutorial How to Turn On or Off Fast Startup (see <here> for Win 10 instructions) and then re-boot a few times to ensure the setting change takes effect. The Fast Startup power option (also known as hybrid boot-up / hybrid shutdown) is enabled by default in Win 10 and Win 11 but it can sometimes interfere with the loading and initialization of drivers and services at boot-up and cause all sorts of unexpected glitches and problems with a variety of software programs.

There's also one other thing you should check for your SupportAssist installation.  The release notes <here> for SupportAssist v4.0 state that the MS .NET Desktop Runtime v6.0.x (currently v6.0.27, released 13-Feb-2024) is required. This Desktop edition includes the "base" MS .NET Runtime v6.0.x (required for the previous SupportAssist v3.14.x) plus additional components described in the MS Learn article Install .NET on Windows, and there are separate installers for the "base" and Desktop editions at https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0.

Go to Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features and confirm that the Desktop edition of the MS .NET Runtime v6.0.x was installed during your upgrade to SupportAssist v4.0.  If you aren't sure if you have the "base" and/or Desktop edition of MS .NET Runtime v6.0.x see my 09-Feb-2024 post in L52's Dell Tech Hub Stops Shutdown or post an image of the all the Microsoft .NET Runtimes you see at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.

If your Dell services all have a status of "Running" and the MS .NET Desktop Runtime v6.0.x is installed then it's possible that a clean reinstall of SupportAssist as instructed in the support article support article SupportAssist for PCs and Tablets Clean Uninstall and Reinstall might solve your problem.  However, given the large number of users posting in this forum about problems with SupportAssist v4.0.x, it is more likely that there are bugs in this new version that need to be fixed by Dell. At this point, my best advice is that you turn off all automatic scanning and optimizations at Settings | Scans and Optimizations at Settings | Scans and Optimizations *** (see instructions <here> in the SupportAssist v4.0 User Guide) and avoid running manual hardware scans until Dell releases the next version of SupportAssist v4.0.x that (hopefully) includes some bug fixes.

If necessary, you can always run an advanced F12 ePSA (enhanced Pre-boot System Assessment) hardware diagnostic from your BIOS as instructed in the Dell support article How to Run a Preboot Diagnostic Test on a Dell Computer .  There is a companion video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cfFECs5Qa0.

If SupportAssist v4.0.x displays any other buggy behavior keep in mind that you can also use Dell Update for Windows Universal v5.x to check for updates for your Dell software and hardware drivers.  If you'd like to try this utility go to Drivers and Downloads tab on the support page for your XPS 15 9520 (e.g. https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/xps-15-9520-laptop/drivers for English-US users), click the This Device tab and enter your unique Service Tag to view the list of drivers and downloads that are filtered to match your specific hardware components, and search for "Update Windows Universal".  Once you enter your Service Tag you should be offered an installer for one of the two utilities shown below that is the correct match for your system [i.e., either Dell/Alienware Update Windows Universal Application v5.2.0 (Dell-Alienware-Update-Windows-Universal-Application_3P8DM_WIN_5.2.0_A00.EXE, rel. 31-Jan-2024) or Dell Command | Update Windows Universal Application (Dell-Command-Update-Windows-Universal-Application_0XNVX_WIN_5.2.0_A00.EXE, rel. 31-Jan-2024)].

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*** ASIDE:  I uninstalled SupportAssist v3.x from my Inspiron 5584 because I found that SupportAssist was too buggy, consumed too many system resources, and that "system optimization" scans (Clean Files / Tune Performance / Optimize Network) were too aggressive and had the potential to do more harm than good - see my 12-Jul-2021 comment in ex-jedi's Prevent Automatic Recycle Bin Emptying about the over-aggressive registry cleaner for one example.  If you want to continue using SupportAssist v4.x I would strongly advise that you permanently disable all automatic background updates checks and scans, even if bug fixes are eventually released, and only run manual "Update Software" and "Scan Hardware" scans from the Home tab of SupportAssist.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3930 * Firefox v122.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23110.3-1.1.23110.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.8.311-1.0.2259 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Dell Update for Windows Universal v5.1.0 * My Dell v2.2.6.0

I am running win 11 with the newest version of SA. 4.0.0.51819 ...

Hi @Sinnbeck :

Are you sure that's the SupportAssist version listed at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features?  According to DELLKaren's 11-Feb-2024 post in ThomasAAT's Buggy support assist, new version 4.0.x they currently have SupportAssist v4.0.9.

If you were looking in Start | Apps | Apps and Features I suspect you will find two separate components for SupportAssist v4.0.x that have different names and version numbers.  I'm not certain about SupportAssist v4.x, but for the previous SupportAssist v3.x those components were the main ~ 300 MB Dell SupportAssist application (which should match the version number shown at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features) and a small "helper" Appx module named "SupportAssist" that contains contain files and credentials required to install and run this Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app.  Here's an old image I captured back in March 2023 on my Win 10 machine for SupportAssist v3.x :

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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3930 * Firefox v122.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23110.3-1.1.23110.2 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.6.8.311-1.0.2259 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Dell Update for Windows Universal v5.1.0 * My Dell v2.2.6.0

Hi, I believe trying to fix this latest version of Supportassist with reinstalls etc  is pointless.  The problem is with the code. The main issues with this latest version (4.0.5819) is with the check for updates part. The optimise and clean up options seem to work - I don't use the hardware scanner.  When checking for updates using Supportassist,  the process stops with "Supportassist  stopped working ", Supportassist Client Helper GUI.exe stopped working " and Supportassist Software Diag.exe" Stopped Working ". These errors are shown in Reliability Monitor.

I have set Supportassist aside and will only use Dell Update to check until these problems are fixed. I also noticed that unlike the previous version there is no way to check if an updated/ repaired version is available so I don't know how we will know when that happens. 

It appears that the hardware scan problem has been fixed. Still running the same SA version as above, but today I got a .NET update today (ver. 6.0.28) and decided to try Support Assist once again, it works!

I have had problems with SupportAssist not doing the Scan Hardware routine and suspected Malwarebytes was interfering.

Possibly, I solved at least this version of the problem.

I entered the SupportAssist URL for HOME computers into Malwarebytes' exclusion section:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/lp/support-assist-for-pcs

Has worked so far.